Artreach team along with artist educator Akshay Sethi led a week long intensive workshop with 25 children from a government school in Dhauli village, Tonk, Rajasthan and 2 local youths. The workshop concluded in two large murals on the school wall and construction of a playground!
The final production marks a visible transformation in not just the space, but the ownership of it, for those involved, especially the girls who took lead of much of the process. It is their dreams, aspirations and imagination that now expand across their school, filling the space with hope and inspiration for a long time to come.
On the first day of the workshop, participants were asked what they enjoy doing most.
We asked all of them to draw what they liked doing, surprisingly most of the girls drew
boys kicking footballs or teaching in a classroom. One very bright girl from the group
however shared that she loves kicking a football, and wishes to wear shorts and sports
shoes and to play freely. We collectively decided to take her idea and to transfer it onto
the large facade wall of the school, facing the main road.
Over the initial two days, Anarya and Akshay shared illustrated stories about inspiring
women from different profession fields – painters, scientists, mountain climbers etc. This led to many conversations on gender roles, work and aspirations and slowly by the end of the day we had drawings of girls in capes, kicking footballs, flying, painting and also in a suit going to the office with a briefcase. An open space for dialogue and trust was created through this process.
The Artreach team started painting the two large murals with a few demonstrations, and soon the participants were able to take charge, brainstorming ideas, drawing, painting and adding details to the wall on their own. There was constant facilitation and guidance by the team, throughout the process.
While the murals were on-going, the team worked with local youth and welders in
constructing animal forms and a large monkey bar out of metal junk and a tyre
installation, which were then painted by students.
This project was in partnership with ipartner India.